Many still have no power, more than a week after Hurricane sandy devastated the area, but residents have turned out in their thousands to vote

A person walks through a makeshift shelter in a gymnasium at Toms River East High School as they arrive to vote in Tom's River, New Jersey

Election day turnout is high in several storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey, with many voters expressing relief and even elation at being able to vote at all, considering the devastation.

Lines were long in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, where residents from the Jersey Shore communities of Point Pleasant Beach and Mantoloking had to cast their ballots due to damage in their home towns.

Many there still have no power, eight days after Superstorm Sandy hit the shore.

Annette DeBona, of Point Pleasant Beach, said it was the happiest vote she had ever cast in her life. She chose Mitt Romney, saying he can lift America out of a spiritual and mental depression.

Michael Sirchio, an insurance adjuster from Point Pleasant Beach whose own home was damaged in the storm, voted for President Obama, saying he inherited a financial crisis and two wars, and did a good job ending both.

On New York City’s battered Staten Island, voters bundled up and lined up in the early morning darkness outside tents functioning as makeshift polling places.